


Easier to Pretend

by Ultra



Series: Moments in Time [31]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Clumsiness, F/M, Head Injury, Love, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-20
Updated: 2012-04-20
Packaged: 2020-03-02 05:32:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18804718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: Eliot's getting clumsy; Parker knows the reason.





	Easier to Pretend

**Author's Note:**

> originally written for Leverageland on Livejournal, for the prompt 'clumsy'.

It was bound to happen sometime. Too many punches to the head, too many times being flipped over car hoods, intentionally or otherwise, too many close calls with walls and iron bars. One person can only take so much, one body can only endure such punishment so long. His spirit remained strong, always had, always would, but other things were failing.

She was the first one to notice and yet pretended she didn’t see. Her visits to his apartment had been just for fun to start out but these days they were necessary. She worried about him a lot, he must have known, though she never really told him. Eliot never liked a fuss, especially over injuries he sustained. This was more than just a knife slash to be bandaged or a bullet to be removed. This was something that wasn’t going to be fixed with a band-aid or an aspirin and rest.

Parker just smiled and joked that he was getting clumsy in his old age, when Eliot tripped on nothing or misjudged the doorway. She teased him about the way his memory eluded him sometimes and he laughed along with her, because it was easier that way.

The reality was that each laugh became more painful as the incidents became more frequent. It got so she couldn’t cover for him in front of the team anymore, and they all started to notice. Eliot had never been clumsy before, never been anything less than razor sharp in his fighting, his reactions, everything. Now it was if there was a time delay, a missing piece.

Parker cried when she dropped him off at the hospital, dreading what would be said when all the scans and tests were run. It had taken all this to make her realise just how much she loved him, and probably all too late.


End file.
